After you’ve experienced the shift from just gazing at the mandala, you can engage the left side of the brain that delights in linear, concrete, rational concepts.

Four Types

In the west, intuitive systems divide Yin and Yang into four “elements.” Earth and Water are “yin”, feminine, receptive. Air and Fire are “yang”, masculine, active. These are words to describe a quality that can be represented by a symbol. Flipping things, let’s start inside.

Ask yourself – “Right now – how do I feel inside?” Write down a few words. Here are some possibilities: excited, scattered, lonely, peaceful, lumpy, anxious, grateful, happy, confused. None of these words are “right”; none are “wrong.” Your inner feeling state is just what it is.

Now look at the surroundings that you find yourself in – right now. Write down a few words… messy, beautiful, dark, orderly, foreign, musical, loud, peaceful, chaotic. Again, there is no “right” or “wrong.”

At this point, let’s notice that looking at the same room, street, restaurant or part, different people would use different different adjectives.

Regardless of one’s personal opinion, the west “categorizes” the adjectives, the qualities, the feelings and gives them labels for ease of communicating. For today, take a piece of paper, fold it into four sections and write what you would associate with “Fire” “Air” “Water” “Earth” – as an archetypal energy. You can include food – spicy jalapeno in the fire square, music – ethereal meditation music in the air square, places – ocean in the water square and people – your grandmother if she was earthy – in the earth square.

As closure to this exercise – look back at the mandala. Can you see the pattern? It goes Fire-Earth-Air-Water-Fire-Earth-Air-Water-Yang-Yin-Yang-Yin. Over the next few days, pay attention to how you would categorize different things in your life.